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To whom be glory and dominion, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

CHAPTERS ON LOVE* 14__168 PROLOGUE TO ELPIDIOS Behold, in addition to the discourse on the ascetic life, I have also sent the discourse on love

to your holiness, father Elpidios, in centuries of chapters equal in number to the four gospels; nothing perhaps worthy of your expectation, but not less than our ability. Nevertheless, let your holiness know that these things are not the fruit of our own mind; but having gone through the words of the holy fathers and having collected from there the sense that contributes to the subject and having brought together many things concisely in a few words, so that they might be easy to survey for the sake of memorization, I have sent them to your holiness, asking you to read them with goodwill and to seek only the benefit in them; to overlook the inelegance of the words and to pray for my lowliness, destitute of all spiritual benefit.

And I ask this also, not to consider what has been said a nuisance. For I have fulfilled a command; I say this because many of us today are troublesome with words, but those who teach or are taught by deeds are very few. But rather to pay diligent attention to each of the chapters. For not all things, 14__170 I think, are easy for all to grasp; but many things require much joint examination for many people, even if they seem to have been said rather simply. For perhaps something useful for the soul might be revealed, being discovered from them. And it will surely be revealed by the grace of God to one who reads with plain thoughts and with fear of God and love. But for one who does not approach this work, or any other, for the sake of spiritual benefit, but to hunt for words in order to revile the one who wrote it, so that he might present himself, as he thinks, as wiser than him, nothing beneficial will ever be revealed from anywhere.

14__172 FIRST CENTURY 1.1 (a') Love is a good disposition of the soul, according to which it prefers nothing of existing things to the

knowledge of God; but it is impossible to attain to the state of this love, for one who has an attachment to anything earthly.

1.2 (b') Dispassion begets love; hope in God, dispassion; patience and long-suffering, hope; these, all-embracing self-control; the fear of God, self-control; faith in the Lord, fear.

1.3 (c') He who believes in the Lord fears punishment; and he who fears punishment controls himself from the passions; and he who controls himself from the passions

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Ὧι ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος, σὺν τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΓΑΠΗΣ* 14__168 ΠΡΟΛΟΓΟΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΕΛΠΙ∆ΙΟΝ Ἰδοὺ πρὸς τῷ περὶ ἀσκητικοῦ βίου λόγῳ καὶ τὸν περὶ ἀγάπης λόγον πέπομφα

τῇ σῇ ὁσιότητι, πάτερ Ἐλπίδιε, ἐν ἰσαρίθμοις κεφαλαίων τῶν τεσσάρων εὐαγγελίων ἑκατοντάδων· οὐδὲν μὲν ἴσως ἄξιον τῆς σῆς προσδοκίας, τῆς δέ γε ἡμετέρας δυνάμεως οὐκ ἔλαττον. Πλὴν γινωσκέτω ἡ σὴ ἁγιωσύνη ὅτι οὐδὲ ταῦτα τῆς ἡμῆς εἰσὶ γεώργια διανοίας· ἀλλὰ τοὺς τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων διελθὼν λόγους κἀκεῖθεν τὸν εἰς τὴν ὑπόθεσιν συντείνοντα νοῦν ἀναλεξάμενος καὶ ἐν ὀλίγοις πολλὰ κεφαλαιωδέστερον συναγαγών, ἵνα εὐσύνοπτα γένωνται διὰ τὸ εὐμνημόνευτον, ἀπέστειλα τῇ σῇ ὁσιότητι, παρακαλῶν εὐγνωμόνως ἀναγινώσκειν καὶ μόνην θηρεύειν τὴν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὠφέλειαν· τὸ δὲ ἀκαλλὲς τῶν λέξεων παραβλέπειν καὶ εὔχεσθαι ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐμῆς μετριότητος, πάσης πνευματικῆς ὠφελείας ἐρήμου.

Παρακαλῶ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο, μὴ εἰς ὄχλησιν ἡγεῖσθαι τὰ εἰρημένα. Ἐπιταγὴν γὰρ πεπλήρωκα· λέγω δὲ τοῦτο, ἐπειδὴ οἱ λόγοις ἐνοχλοῦντες πολλοί ἐσμεν σήμερον· οἱ δὲ ἔργοις παιδεύοντες ἢ παιδευόμενοι πάνυ εἰσὶν ὀλίγοι. Ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἐμπόνως προσέχειν ἑκάστῳ τῶν κεφαλαίων. Οὐ πάντα γὰρ πᾶσιν, 14__170 ὡς οἶμαι, εἰσὶν εὔληπτα· ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλῆς τὰ πολλὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς δεόμενα τῆς συνεξετάσεως, εἰ καὶ δοκεῖ ἁπλούστερον εἰρῆσθαι. Ἴσως γὰρ ἄν τι φανείη χρήσιμον τῇ ψυχῇ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀνακαλυπτόμενον. Ἀναφανήσεται δὲ πάντως Θεοῦ χάριτι τῷ ἀπεριέργοις ἐννοίαις καὶ μετὰ φόβου Θεοῦ καὶ ἀγάπης ἀναγινώσκοντι. Τῷ δὲ μὴ ὡφελείας χάριν πνευματικῆς ἐντυγχάνοντι ἢ τούτῳ τῷ πονήματι ἢ καὶ ἄλλῳ οἱῳδήποτε, ἀλλὰ τοῦ λέξεις θηρεύειν πρὸς τὸ κακίζειν τὸν συγγραψάμενον, ἵνα ἑαυτὸν ἐκείνου δῆθεν, ὡς οἰήσει, σοφώτερον παραστήσῃ, οὐδὲν ὠφέλιμον οὐδαμόθεν οὐδέποτε ἀναφανήσεται.

14__172 ΕΚΑΤΟΝΤΑΣ ΠΡΩΤΗ 1.1 (α') Ἀγάπη μέν ἐστι διάθεσις ψυχῆς ἀγαθή, καθ᾽ ἣν οὐδὲν τῶν ὄντων τῆς

τοῦ Θεοῦ γνώσεως προτιμᾷ· ἀδύνατον δὲ εἰς ἕξιν ἐλθεῖν ταύτης τῆς ἀγάπης, τὸν πρός τι τῶν ἐπιγείων ἔχοντα προσπάθειαν.

1.2 (β') Ἀγάπην μὲν τίκτει ἀπάθεια· ἀπάθειαν δέ, ἡ εἰς Θεὸν ἐλπίς· τὴν δὲ ἐλπίδα, ὑπομονὴ καὶ μακροθυμία· ταύτας δέ, ἡ περιεκτικὴ ἐγκράτεια· ἐγκράτειαν δέ, ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ φόβος· τὸν δὲ φόβον, ἡ εἰς τὸν Κύριον πίστις.

1.3 (γ') Ὁ πιστεύων τῷ Κυρίῳ φοβεῖται τὴν κόλασιν· ὁ δὲ φοβούμενος τὴν κόλασιν ἐγκρατεύεται ἀπὸ τῶν παθῶν· ὁ δὲ ἐγκρατευόμενος ἀπὸ τῶν παθῶν